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the fun kind of history lessons
Dec. 3rd, 2008 09:22 pmSo, obviously, I'm home tonight studiously avoiding the Twilight hysteria currently overtaking Leicester Square (watching the media shit storm only just hitting this side of the pond is highly amusing, naturally) and wondering who paid off Empire for their kinda scarily nice coverage (four stars?! in which alternate universe was that ever likely to happen..). But then, considering I've only ever braved Leicester Square for festivals and the Serenity premiere, not so surprising I'm home alone watching tv.
Except when it means i get to watch The Devil's Whore, then I can totally claim it's educational, obviously :o)
It's a tough sell on the title, of course... sounds a tad dodgy, but it's actually an English Civil War drama. Plus being a fabulous bodice-ripper in disguise, of course. And, yet, it's never that simple. It keeps reminding me of Firethorn and A Heroine of the World, which isn't exactly what you normally get from costume drama.
Gawd knows Our Heroine Angelica gets through husbands like they're going out of fashion, but it's just so damn addictive. Considering Angelica also hallucinates the devil at really inappropriate moments, and accidentally killed a guy for pigeon pie (ok, it wasn't exactly for the pie), Andrea Risebrough also looks eerily like a Rembrandt brought to life as she variously runs around Charles I's court in fabulous dresses, then does the whole rags/riches/rags shuffle. Considering I know precisely nothing about the historical context (damn the History A level teachers who decided I had to do British 19th C politics rather than the civil war class. Thanks a bunch guys), I don't have a clue how historically accurate it all is, plus I don't really care all that much.
( Random spoilery Devil's Whore ramblings follow... )
Also highly entertaining tonight: Boris Johnson being grilled by the London Assembly over the Damien Green case. Gotta love the dude sitting there swinging on his chair, really not taking the situation very seriously... there's just something so alternately cool and slightly worrying about having a mayor that behaves like a hyperactive schoolboy...
Also, my DVD of Persuasion has gone missing..! I sat through half an hour of the godawful ITV version on Monday, and really really needed something to take the nasty taste away, dammit (why oh why would anyone move Anne's big finale speech TO THE MIDDLE?! And buying Kellynch at the end?! and the frickin' inaugural Bath marathon at the end *shudder*. Now i really need the calming effect of Amanda Root and Ciaran Hinds strolling off into the wake of the circus like grown-ups... The ITV version IS the circus!
Except when it means i get to watch The Devil's Whore, then I can totally claim it's educational, obviously :o)
It's a tough sell on the title, of course... sounds a tad dodgy, but it's actually an English Civil War drama. Plus being a fabulous bodice-ripper in disguise, of course. And, yet, it's never that simple. It keeps reminding me of Firethorn and A Heroine of the World, which isn't exactly what you normally get from costume drama.
Gawd knows Our Heroine Angelica gets through husbands like they're going out of fashion, but it's just so damn addictive. Considering Angelica also hallucinates the devil at really inappropriate moments, and accidentally killed a guy for pigeon pie (ok, it wasn't exactly for the pie), Andrea Risebrough also looks eerily like a Rembrandt brought to life as she variously runs around Charles I's court in fabulous dresses, then does the whole rags/riches/rags shuffle. Considering I know precisely nothing about the historical context (damn the History A level teachers who decided I had to do British 19th C politics rather than the civil war class. Thanks a bunch guys), I don't have a clue how historically accurate it all is, plus I don't really care all that much.
( Random spoilery Devil's Whore ramblings follow... )
Also highly entertaining tonight: Boris Johnson being grilled by the London Assembly over the Damien Green case. Gotta love the dude sitting there swinging on his chair, really not taking the situation very seriously... there's just something so alternately cool and slightly worrying about having a mayor that behaves like a hyperactive schoolboy...
Also, my DVD of Persuasion has gone missing..! I sat through half an hour of the godawful ITV version on Monday, and really really needed something to take the nasty taste away, dammit (why oh why would anyone move Anne's big finale speech TO THE MIDDLE?! And buying Kellynch at the end?! and the frickin' inaugural Bath marathon at the end *shudder*. Now i really need the calming effect of Amanda Root and Ciaran Hinds strolling off into the wake of the circus like grown-ups... The ITV version IS the circus!
